Thanks Elmer…were there any specific study materials they used?
L
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We used this book.
Come join us every Saturday, 10:30 AM PST. Goes to 2-3 hours. Riveting. We have a number of Spectrumites there. @GeorgeTichy @cincerity and others who prefer to maintain anonymity at this time.
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Thank you so much…I’m going to order it!
L
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Have read both the Bull/Guy books, enjoyed them both. your welcome to try out the SS at Adventist Today, https://atoday.org/atss-august-15/. Persons from around the world bring good viewponts to the discussions.
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Great article - couldn’t agree more.
From my local church we’ve been running a virtual Sabbath School since the start of April. We’ve had fantastic no-holds-barred discussions on Hermeneutics (wonderful, and critically important subject if properly studied - see Bray’s brilliant book on History of Hermenautics if you dare read a non-SD author)) initially running up to 2 1/2 hours (now curtailed to 90 mins) and now on “witnessing”. Without doubt we’ve had the best SS “lessons” I’ve ever been part of in 50 years of adult SS.
And we have NO plans to go back to the 20 min run-through of the “quarterly”.
Hurrah for Zoom!
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Thanks Ray…I’m on deck with leading the lesson today. Decided the quarterly was a bit old and tired and so changed the lesson title to “Witnessing Gone Wrong”, and we’re going to discuss Matthew 23 and Mark 9…should be a lot of fun. You’re welcome to join in here…let me know if you want the link. My email address is lnottingham@bellsouth.net.
L
This is a great article and totally share the program-oriented church going, especially the 90/10 non gifted/gifted ratio for the audience centered worship. There is one thing that I miss though since I decided quitting SDA: the sense of community, the sense of belonging. No small group replaced the feeling of dozens of brothers & sisters, friends. With the pandemic, this anguish this grows further.
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That would explain the lack of understanding about the 3 Angels’ Warnings.
De 18:10 “There shall not be found among you… an enchanter, or a witch”
Are you aware that " God, Land, and The Great Flood" reduces the biblical global flood to a local/regional flood? According to an Amazon review: " When modern readers read that the flood waters covered the face of the earth they think covered the entire globe." And it appears that this recommended book does away with the devil as noted in the same review: “The ancient Hebrew worldview contained only two causal forces: human and divine.”
Is your study group into Bible study or the study of secular messages that just stimulate conversation without any eternal value?
Did the Amazon review that I saw correctly describe their books of the flood as a local event rather than a global event ? 
If you’re down for something outside the Adventist box, Gordon Fee’s book, “Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God,” would be a good long term study project. Fee is a brilliant Pentecostal scholar.
Frank
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I read the second…very good!
Frank
If you were to read the OT in its historical and cultural context, you would see that this isn’t heretical. It’s a more accurate understanding of how the writers thought, and what cultural stream they, and their Hebrew audience swam in.
Frank
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Frank, If it were a local flood as you appear to suggest in defense of the book that ___ recommended, the global rock strata would not be as universal as it is. In the US, Europe, Asia, etc, the strata all tell the same story. The layers align corresponding with a global flood.
So, though I did not label the book in question as “heretical” if someone were to make that assessment, I personally would not argue with their conclusion. But having only read of the recommendation and not finding any real information about the book except an Amazon review, I would not be comfortable reading it or suggesting that others study it.
That’s not good science. The layers were laid down over billions of years.
Here’s a primer so we can educate ourselves (no charge at all!):
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I really connect with what you say about missing the sense of community, the sense of belonging.
My father carried me to church when I was a baby. Church is my extended family. Although we meet on Zoom, it isn’t the same as doing things together with friends.
People from other place come to our church and it is my guess that if you were with us, you would still be a member.
That is not good science since the earth is not yet 6,200 years old and the multiple layers were laid down during the global flood…
“Here’s a primer so we can educate ourselves (no charge at all!)” showing multiple trees that have grown through several layers that are supposed to represent billions of years.
At last we agree!
Who actually cares? And better yet, why the heck does it matter?
“I know, Teacher! I know! Pick me! Pick me!”
“Yes, Johnny?”
“I don’t, and it does t matter a whit!”
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Let’s compare notes on resurrection morning. On second thought, lets do it around the tree of life. That won’t work either since the more important issues of the day will have put this stuff to rest. So let’s just see if we both made it there! By that time we will know just how important this stuff was here in getting us over there.
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We must be using different science textbooks. Is yours called the Bible, by any chance? If so, I think you’re using it for the wrong thing. The bible isn’t intended to teach us geology. Or math. Or medicine. Or biology. Or any of the other sciences.
It’s meant to teach us about Yahweh. And Jesus.
Though you probably wouldn’t, I recently read and really liked this book:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1725257696/
Written by a Adventist, son of an Adventist pastor, just for perspective.
I suspect many of you here would like it quite a lot, especially in the way James has learned to approach the bible and how it relates to science (and how it doesn’t.)
Read the Amazon preview here:
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Amazing that a book that reveals the Love of God can also give insights into creation, science, biology, and medicine.
Secrets of nutrition and the universe are in Genesis and Job (both penned my Moses).
Then how to treat an inflamed boil to save a life is in Isaiah (if I recall correctly)
And the list goes on,
but you seem to prefer relying on popular rather guessers than the real Authority
That is your choice, as poor as it seems to me, it is your choice.
As they say “gigo”
I’m glad that you have it all figured out. Must be nice.
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